The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

The sewers of Nyurajke were not extensive. Mostly, in Nyurajke, it was to contain the water runoff.

There were many waterfalls in draculkar communities.

Krow could almost say they engineered them as a theme.

But also, in Nyurajke, the sixteen fountains in varying platform-levels of the town meant that water management was a governmental concern.

Draculkar communities, Krow already noticed, were cleaner than the human towns he'd known in Zushkenar. Of course, no town was as smelly and disease-ridden as the towns in Earth's histories.

The scenting abilities of draculkar were strong, only second to the strength of vargvir senses.

It was probably one of the reasons that draculkar and vargvir had cleaner streets and scent-containment spelled sewers, really – they had the sensitive nose in common.

Though any of the two races would be outraged at the comparison.

Sucar hunched over the map they'd taken from the fountain maintenance people, layers of cloth wrapped around his nose and mouth. "We're right under the market right now."

"Look around then."

The Scount subclass gave Krow no data. Did that mean the key was out of range, like it had been swept away by the waters or that it never had been here?

Unfortunately, even following the sewer tunnels gave them no success.

It was just a key, Krow puffed out a breath after nearly an hour of searching in lamplight.

In that time, they found several battered uncommon armor pieces, a rare boot (missing the second), and a grade F Common necklace. Krow tossed everything into his inventory – he could use them for deconstruction practice later.

There were also two bone-newt monster nests in the way.

The monsters were Lvl 6 and below.

Which says a lot about the comfortableness of the Nyurajke sewers for bone-newt reproduction.

Krow didn't want to think about it.

He grumbled. "There are probably people out there that could be hired to change locks even if the place wasn't your house."

Sucar sent him a scandalized, censoring look. "That's not something a law-abiding person should say."

That's the point, Krow silently riposted. "Besides, it doesn't solve the problem: where would you get an identical key? Though I suppose the theoretical scofflaw locksmith likely could make one."

Not in time.

There were less than two hours to noon.

Krow peered over Sucar's shoulder. He pointed. "That's a vertical access point, yes? We should just head there, get out of here faster."

They didn't need to go all the way to the maintenance office entrance.

Sucar nodded vigorously.

Disappointed yet again, they hurried to the exit.

He only had Minor Poison as a debuff.

But there was no way he was going to mix sewer fumes with anything he put in his mouth, even an antidote!

Sucar stopped walking.

"Lost again?"

"I haven't gotten lost. Not once!"

"There was the time you had the map upside-down."

"That doesn't count."

"It does."

Sucar ignored him. "I heard something."

They strained their ears.

Krow heard it.

They weren't alone in the sewers.

They glanced at each other, mutually deciding to sneak a peek.

The voices were in the direction of the exit, after all.

Sucar turned off the lamp. They relied on the light from sewer openings to improve their vision as they moved.

"—rs, this is the glorious time that is ours. We are on the precipice of creating something great, something enduring, something that our descendants would point at and say, 'This were my ancestors!' rather than the so called blood that makes people strut around entitled."

"We act!" came from a half-dozen throats.

"We act! We persevere! We protect!"

Krow and Sucar looked at each other, and decided to back away.

Was this a cult?

Why was there a draculkar cult in the sewers?

"They're close to the exit," Sucar hissed to Krow.

Krow answered in whispers, their heads meeting over the map. "Go here, toward the exit. I'll cause a diversion here and then join you. Just wait a few moments. You'll know what to do."

Sucar bit his lip, nodded .

They moved into tunnels going into opposite directions.

The one Krow took curved, gently, until the tunnel opened into an underground pool.

On the platform, eight people sat listening to two declaiming about their glorious revolution.

That didn't sound good.

[You've discovered a group of conspirators! Will you help them or hinder them?]

Krow grimaced and grabbed up a few broken pieces of pottery between his fingers.

He tapped them on the stones in a rhythmic pattern, that walking insouciance of the clawed animal.

Several looked in his direction, but dismissed the sound.

One of them frowned. "Rats again?"

"The newts, more like."

Krow skipped a pebble into a far tunnel.

The fiery rant of the two on-stage was just heating up.

It stopped. "Jarver, go check what that was."

Could he hope to discover that these were just stage players or debaters?

Of course he could.

The universe just doesn't want to play along.

What he wouldn't give for a silent weapon, right about now. Krow threw another rock, then another, then another, then another.

"That wasn't an animal."

"Just go see it's gone," the leader was obviously disappointed that he had to cut his rant short.

Krow lit a lamp and rolled it like a bowling ball into another tunnel. Like someone had tripped and decided to leave their lamp.

"There's someone here!"

"Catch them!"

The one standing by the lectern shook his head. "Kill them."

There was brief laughter.

"Of course, what do you take us for?"

"Come out, come out, you."

Krow quickly traced Sucar's path, moving as quietly as he could. This was too much excitement for a single sewer dive.

"Where is the outside access point?"

Sucar pointed at the ladder, right behind the lectern.

Of course it was.

But now, there were only three of them left.

"Get ready," he hissed at Sucar. "Now. Go, go, go!"

Krow snapped out three stuns in concert, swapped cylinders, and shot again three times.

Two of the three dropped. Low-level grunts. The last one standing was no match for two stun bullets. Grunt-leader, probably.

Krow placed into his Inventory all that he could swipe with a single sweep of an arm. He could hear the others returning at a run. He jumped at the ladder even as Sucar's feet were disappearing upward.

They tumbled from the access onto a clearing outside the town.

Krow closed the access, grimacing at the broken lock. He grabbed Sucar, triggered Double Jump twice in rapid succession, getting away as soon as possible.

They hid behind trees, panting.

Krow's Minor Poisoned was now added to Minor Exhaustion.

"Did you hear what they were saying?" Sucar was pale and trembling. "They want to blow up shops and buildings!"

They said what?

"Guardhouse," decided Krow.

Sucar nodded fervently.

Once they were there, Krow placed the documents he swiped on Training Sergeant Amluyr's desk. Sucar was already babbling about the things he saw in the sewers.

The sergeant nodded. "We'll look into it."

[You've assisted the Nyurajke Town Guard with the quest, 'Seeking Conspiracies'! You've gained 10 RP with the Town Guard, and 5 RP with Nyurajke Town.] [B]

That meant they'd stumbled across a quest-chain, or probably a storyline quest.

An assist or a hindrance on a quest other players are doing was also part of the Redlands game mechanics. Not one of the popular ones, as most players didn't want others butting in on their quests.

"By the way, your key came in."

Eh?

"What."

He didn't just hear that?

"The key you were looking for." The sergeant reached under the counter and retrieved a small package she pushed to Krow.

Sucar all but scrambled over him to see the package.

Carved iron cylinder, copper head, faded white stamp of the letters KR.

Sucar stared at the key in his hands. "Uh. Yes, this is the one. This is the one!"

He laughed, almost crying with relief.

Krow slumped down on the counter and groaned.

It was, in fact, that easy.

He had just to wait for it here?!

Un-belie-vable.

Krow hooked an arm around the hysterically relieved Sucar. "Friend, you owe me for this."

*

They were in the Realty in less than a half-hour.

The day wasn't going any better.

The average 1300-slot warehouse cost 150,000 drax.

Sucar saw his expression. "You can always search the private sales. Those are usually the ones with conditions that cannot be put on the official catalogues. I'm not supposed to give you access, but well…I promised to help. I know you didn't believe me, but this is all I can do. Sorry?"

"You're a great help, Sucar."

The other nodded, and unlocked a few things at the desk, gestured at the holo before Krow.

The holo of listings changed.

The numbers lowered by at least half.

The warehouses were more run-down. Not as many item-slots, not as prestigious locations. There were warning notes aplenty on at least half of them.

But they were priced under 90,000 drax per building.

Krow smiled.

This was more like it.